SCOTTISH Greens co-leader Lorna Slater has said the Tories "lose their shit" over her party being in government in Scotland.
Speaking ahead of the party's conference in Clydebank, she also said that Westminster’s playbook was “very much” about blocking legislation coming out of Holyrood, pointing to the recent blocking of the gender reform legislation by the UK Government using a Section 35 order.
She told the Sunday National: “There’s no longer this commitment to working together as nations within the UK.
“The Section 35 order has raised the stakes in an unprecedented way for the UK government to block legislation being passed by the Scottish Parliament.
“And I think it’s becoming clearer and clearer that the only way to have the kind of Scotland that we want to have is by becoming an independent country."
Meanwhile, Slater said the SNP leadership race is an opportunity for the independence movement to “reset” - adding that there is a need to go back to building grassroots support.
Polls carried out in recent weeks have suggested a dip in support for leaving the UK during the contest to replace Nicola Sturgeon.
When asked if it had resulted in any kind of negative impact on the campaign for Yes, Slater told the Sunday National: “It is an opportunity for the independence movement as a whole to kind of reset and look at what we are, because the independence movement isn’t a one-party movement.
“You see it so still often represented in the press, particularly the London press as if, as if one political party owned that.
“For the Scottish Greens, for us, independence is not an end in itself, it is a means to an end.
“Independence is the only way we can do things like manage our own immigration and protect refugees the way we would like, to welcome them properly into our country.”
Asked what route to a referendum she would prefer, Slater said: “Scotland has huge potential, so we need to make sure that people understand that we are being held back by Westminster and that we can do more and better in an independent Scotland.
“You must have that kind of unstoppable momentum. and some ways, it is sort of back to grassroots – if there was a referendum, we need that massive support.
“So let’s go back to grassroots and build that support.”
During a speech at the party's spring conference, Slater said that the Tories "lose their shit" at the Scottish Greens being in power at Holyrood.
She added: “They see me there, making the decisions instead of them, standing up to them.”
